Newbie building first MAME cabinet

[zaldor]

Hey everyone, i'm new here but wanted to put a post up to announce myself as well as the project that i'm undertaking with my 12 yr old son this summer.   I picked up a NBA Jam 4player cabinet for $100 a month or so ago, and plan on making it into a 4 player MAME with trackball/spinner and maybe a flight/tron stick.   

I'm concerned about the control panel, I don't want to make difficult or too many buttons.   What's the recommended number of buttons per player?  6?   I'm planning on either adding to the current CP, or just replacing the top of the CP of the NBA Jam - still haven't decided.   I'll put up pictures soon of the current state, which is pretty much just an empty cabinet!   I've got the computer and monitor, just need to start buying the buttons/joysticks/controller cards - and putting it all together!

-Les

[leapinlew]

Good luck!

Judging by your questions, I would suggest you do more research before you end up with a frankenpanel you regret. Some questions to consider:

Who will be playing this game? If it's just you and 3 others - a frankenpanel will be fine, but if you expect strangers to walk up to the machine and understand which stick to use and which buttons go with which stick - you'll be in for a long night of people calling you to the game for help.
What games do you want to play? For example, whats the purpose of the flight stick? Tron/Satans Hollow/Gorf? Is a few games worth all the effort of the added control?

Many of us have learned that 1 cabinet that plays everything ends up as a less than pleasurable gaming experience. Do lots of reading, designing, mock up, and have fun.

[Roo]

Many of us have learned that 1 cabinet that plays everything ends up as a less than pleasurable gaming experience. Do lots of reading, designing, mock up, and have fun.

+1

I think that a trackball and spinner are generally good additions to a CP, IF those games interest you.  And a spinner is really just for Arkanoid and Tempest - maybe Tron if you go with a stick too.

If you do go for the huge CP, most people go with 6 or 7 buttons for player 1 and 2 (the two middle positions) and 4 buttons for player 3 and 4.  There's nothing in MAME that uses more than 4 buttons in a 4 player game.  6 buttons will run allow you to play pretty much everything and then some people add a 7th button to have a Neo Geo layout.

I found this site very helpful when designing button layouts:

http://www.slagcoin.com/joystick/layout.html

[zaldor]

Thanks guys - I am trying to do the research before I even make a cut on the cabinet.   As for games, I'd like to make it capable to play the majority of games possible - the Tron gun was just something I thought up recently, not sure if I even want to put it in there.   Couldn't you play Tron/Satan's Hollow/Gorf with just a joystick and button1?

I've been looking at the CPs that have the 2 levels recently, thinking that might be the way to go though.   Still not sure.  Research on this forum and other sites is in my future for this long weekend...

Thanks for the button layout site, I had looked at it before - will add it to my growing list of reference links!

Does anyone have a good list of links?

[leapinlew]

Couldn't you play Tron/Satan's Hollow/Gorf with just a joystick and button1?

Gorf still has performance issues doesn't it? Tron requires 1 button, but satans hollow has 2. It's an expensive stick for 3 games.

[Pinball Wizard]

Gorf IIRC is working pretty well now but I haven't played it recently to tell you either way. A Tron stick doesn't have to just be for mame, run a flight simulator in the cabinet or something and really get it going good.